Dempsey's Demise by A.B. Thomas

Dempsey's Demise

by A.B. Thomas

Rating: **** (4 stars)

Genre: Urban Fantasy, Vampires, Paranormal, Horror

Book Length: 104 pages

Dempsey's Demise reads like a prequel to another series. It is a beginning story. The beginning of this story happens to be how Harriott becomes a vampire. Perhaps it would be better to describe her as a hate filled, bitter, vengeful vampire. What else would happen when you are turned at fourteen years old. 

This novel will capture your attention and take you for a ride. Although that ride may be more of a freak show or haunted house at a carnival. The story is not for the faint of heart. It is pretty gruesome. While the descriptions themselves are not overdone, leaving my dinner safely in my stomach, it is evident that the author has no qualms about throwing anything gruesome in is novels. It makes for one fantastic story that left me more emotionally involved than I expected. I was hooked - in the same way that you can't stop looking at your festering wound. 

I do not usually enjoy a story where I do not relate to the main character. Harriott has major emotional issues. Maybe it wasn't as concerning because she has legitimate excuses for them - not that slaughtering everyone in her path is truly excusable, but it is a vampire novel. 

While I enjoyed Dempsey's Demise very much there is sometimes where the person narrating the story would change within the same section. This was confusing and did not add to the story. There were also sections that seemed to switch from showing the story to just telling about it. Usually, it was to sum up longer periods of times but it was a bit jarring. It didn't stop the flow of reading, though. I ended up reading most of the novel in one sitting. 

Dempsey's Demise is not a book for everyone. It is something different to pick up if you are into the darker side of Urban Fantasy. The language is pretty clean but the content could be a bit disturbing. It also does contain sex scenes. It flowed with the narration rather than dominating the story and were not erotica graphic. 

***This book was given to me for free in exchange for an honest review.***

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Diary of a Wimpy Kid by Jeff Kinney

Diary of a Wimpy Kid

by Jeff Kinney 

Rating: *** (3 stars)

Book Length: 224 pages

Genre: Children's Chapter, Humor

I have known about Diary of a Wimpy Kid long before I ever picked up the book. It replaced Harry Potter as the book to get kids to read. My own kids love them. Even my youngest who can't focus to read tore through the series. Kinney seemed to find a magic formula when writing this book. Maybe a magic formula that is only understood by kids. I didn't find this book all that great. 

I will start off with what I did appreciate about the book. There were a lot more words than I had thought. I had thought it was more of a graphic novel, which my kids love, and less word narrative. Instead, I would describe it as word narrative that uses pictures to be less daunting. The font of the book is very pleasing to children with more attention issues. The plot is extremely relevant. 

That being said Greg, the main sixth grader, is an extremely unpleasant character. Yes, he is trying to fit into a new middle school but the kid is mean to his own friends. There is more grown in the side characters than in the main character. Then at the end of the book when he should be taking some responsibility he doesn't. He makes one nice gesture, is not all that gracious about even making that gesture, and then blames his friend for being gone so long - when he was a jerk to him. 

It isn't a bad book. I do not regret letting my children read them. I do not think it taught anything bad. It was just unpleasant reading it for myself.

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The Lightning Thief by Rick Riordan

The Lightning Thief

by Rick Riordan

Rating: **** (4 stars)

Book Length: 377 pages

Genre: Children's Chapter, Mythology, Middle school, Urban Fantasy

Percy Jackson is a sixth grader in a boarding school for troubled kids. He seems to be the most troubled of the troubled kids. Yet, like every child fantasizes, he is not really troubled he is special. He is a half god - and not just any god, he is the son of Psydon god of the ocean.

The book is a tale about Percy Jackson finding himself and world for him to belong to. He does this in true mythological fashion by completing a quest that will save the world.

The story is a fun read. I think the success of the series shows that it will connect with a lot of kids. However, I have two gripes with the book. My first is the flippant use of ADHD and Dyslexia. I get that Percy has these diagnoses because Riordan's own son was diagnosed with them. I get the appeal of having a child with ADHD featured in the book. Except that Percy didn't really have ADHD or Dyslexia. He was a half-god with heightened battle skills and a brain attuned to reading ancient Greek. The book discounts these diagnosis and then continues to throw the terms around almost as an excuse. As a parent of children who have their own diagnosis (including ADHD) it is great to see characters they can relate to. Yet having my own diagnosis it irked me the way that it was presented in the book.

My second gripe is that there are three twelve-year-old kids running around the country and no one really thought this was odd. I mean they bought their own train tickets and no one questioned it. The only people in the novel who questioned them wondering around were monsters. I find this a bit unrealistic. Maybe I am just too old.

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The North Water by Ian McGuire

The North Water

by Ian McGuire

Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Book Length: 270 pages

Genre: Fiction, Historical Fiction

All I knew about this book before I picked it up was that it had good reviews and it was suppose to be dark. 

The book opens by introducing us to Henry Drax who is most likely a psychopath. He follows base instincts to know when to eat, sleep, have sex, get drunk, and to kill. Henry Drax represents everything that is vial about human nature. Yet, this is not really his story. 

The novel follows Sumner, an army surgeon that was dishonourably discharged while serving in India. Unable to find work Sumner agrees to be a doctor on a whaling ship. To add to his misfortune Henry Drax is also employed on the ship. 

The novel is dark but not graphic. Ian McGuire does a great job describing the characters and the world. He pays extra special attention to the olfaction sensory experience. I do not think I have ever pictured smell so vividly from reading a book. Yet, due to Sumner acting as narrator, the book portrays the potential cruelty of human nature without being so graphic that it was completely unreadable. Instead what is shown is a struggle to overcome base human nature to transform into a better human being. 

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The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy by Douglas Adams

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy

by Douglas Adams

Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Length: 216 pages

Genre: Science Fiction, Humor

The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy has been a favorite book of mine since I was in middle school. I once wrote an epic novel using the writing style of Adams as inspiration. Sadly I do not have that book any longer. Thankfully I do have this original book which I have read more times than I can count.

Douglas Adams first developed the idea for The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy while he was hitchhiking around Europe. He later made it into a radio show in England and eventually into a book.

This book should be on everyone's to be read list. The writing is whimsical and light but also possess a great depth to them. The main characters of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy are Arthur who is an Earthman who at the beginning of the novel is trying to save his house from being demolished for an expressway. Ironically enough, the Earth is also about to be demolished to make way for an expressway. Thankfully Arthur's friend, Ford Prefect, is actually an intergalactic hitchhiker and bums a ride on the ship that is destroying the Earth. This is just how the story begins. The plot becomes a lot more convoluted from there.

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Ready Player One by Ernest Cine

Ready Player One

by Ernest Cline

Review: ***** (5 stars)

Book Length: 386 pages

Genre: Science Fiction

Most new Science Fiction hasn't made it into the long list of sci-fi greats. I mean there are a lot of really great science fiction authors, and science fiction readers are very passionate about them. You can even see that in this book. The main character -Wade- names his spaceship Vonnegut after one of the greats. Seeing a book that was published in 2016 on all of the great lists (well those published or modified after it's release) took me by surprise. I, of course, had to read it. I am extremely glad that I did.

Ready Player One was a nice engaging read. The book was fun, it captured my attention and pulled me in. It pulled me in so much I decided that reading was a lot more important than sleep. I finished close to one this morning. Since I wake up at five you can see my addiction to finishing this novel.

This novel is a cult classic celebrating cult classics. It is dedicated to all things 80s specifically arcade games. Can you remember your first video game? I can, it was a brand new Nintendo console where I played Mario Brothers and shot birds on Duck Hunt. Soon after I also got a Genesis (like an Atari) and played some of the classics.

Those games are nothing like the video games that we have now. I mean compare them to Pokemon Go or World of Warcraft. Yet, they will forever live in the hearts of gamers everywhere. If you can relate to what I am saying then go right now and get this book. You will absolutely love it!

If not then you may still love it. The writing is good, the plot flows well, and the characters are engaging. It is fascinating and extremely relevant to think about the world where we have developed a virtual reality. This book adds to that nitch in a fun and new way.

Magazine Review - The Ensign - December 2016

The Ensign

December 2016

The Ensign is a magazine published by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and is geared towards adults.

Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Length: 86 pages

Genre: Religion

At the end of the 2016 year it is not surprising that there were no changes in the formatting of the magazine. All the categories that we have seen all year (and some for many years) were included. 

The issue starts with the First Presidency Message given by Henry B. Eyring about having peace. It is a powerful message as we have many questioning the direction that our nation and our world is headed. 

Being the December issue there is a heavy theme of Christmas and Christ's birth. There are a lot of short stories about the magic of the season. 

One of the most influential articles for me was "The Divine Power of Grace" by James J. Hamula. Like the title suggests the article is about the power of grace in our lives. The most impactful message in the article for me was that God does not expect perfection. What he expects is for us to continue to work towards perfection. 

"All this suggests that we must learn patience with ourselves and others in our current weaknesses and imperfections, and we must learn perseverance in the unavoidably gradual process of growth unto perfection."

This was a message that I know that I needed to hear. 

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami translated by Jay Rubin

The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle 

by Haruki Murakami

translated by Jay Rubin

Rating: ** (two stars)

Book Length: 607 pages

Genre: Fiction, Fantasy, Mystical Realism, Japanese Litterature

This book is a difficult review for me to write. This book is extremely well written (or translated since I did not read it in original Japanese) in terms of sentence structure and word flow. Yet the story did not flow well for me. I wonder how much of this has to do with me not reading a ton of Japanese Litterature. I wonder if it is my fault that I did not connect with this book in the slightest. I finally realized that every book I read is a link between the words the author puts down and my own experiences. 

It may seem dramatic to say that I counted down the pages until this book was over. It wasn't torture reading the words. It was torture reading the story. There are subplots within subplots throughout the entire story. All contain a mystical theme. The theme itself didn't concern me, however how they were connected did. They weren't connected. They were fragments that seemed like they should all flow together yet never did. 

I still do not get why there needed to be a Lieutenant Mamiya at all. The story would not have lost anything by cutting out his story completely. What is the point of May Kashara. Was she suppose to be some stand in while his wife was gone? If so why make her underage - so that they can never be? It seems that Creta Kano filled the same purpose and he had no problem walking away from her to look for his wife. Why have separate characters for Malta Kano and Nutmeg Akasaka. The all filled the same role. Why have one set of characters leave to introduce a new set? Is this suppose to represent his short term mystical connection? Would it have made any difference to have left Malta Kano and Creta Kano in these roles? Why is there such a strong sexual connotation in the beginning of the novel that is completely absent in the later part of the novel? Why not leave it out in the beginning or at least give it meaning in the later part of the book. As you can see the story just didn't add up to me. It was made unnecessarily confusing. 

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The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks

by Rebecca Skloot

Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Book Length: 370 pages

Genre: Science, Non-Fiction, Biography

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks is almost three different stories that are highly interconnected until they are woven into one cohesive book. 

The first story is almost a memoir of the author Rebecca Skloot. She is very much present in the book as most of the present day stories are narrated as her experiences. The experiences may be about her interactions with the Lacks' family but you will finish the book with a connection to the author as much as to the subject of the book. 

The second story is the history of the HeLa cells that were harvested from Henrietta Lacks and were grown to finance an entire medical field. These cells have done more for medical history than perhaps anything else. The story is a record of that history. This record is written in a way that is gripping and understandable to individuals who do not have a medical background. Yet it is engaging and through enough to be of interest to even those who have worked directly with these cells. 

The third story is a story of Henrietta Lacks and her family. This is a story of a rural African American female whose parents were slaves. It is the story of her daughter Deborah who lacked formal education yet educated herself of anything to do with her mother's cells. When she didn't understand something she would work until she at least had a concept of the idea. The story is about how her family was wronged by the medical community that made millions off her mother's cells yet left her family in poverty. It is the story of how she strived for better for the future Lacks children. 

The first two stories were highly fascinating. It is the third story that left the biggest impression as I read this book. I have read about the civil rights movement and accounts of desegregation. No other book put the chronology as clearly in my mind. Rebecca Skloot, who was alive during the early 2000s was the granddaughter of slaves. Within her life she was denied basic human rights. Reading about this family put it into perspective for me better than memorizing dates from any history class had. 

I wish this book was required reading for everyone. 

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A Wrinkle in Time by Madeleine L'Engle

A Wrinkle in Time

by Madeleine L'Engle

Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Book Length: 211 pages

Genre: Children's Chapter, Fantasy

There is no way for me to review this book unbiasedly. If I was to name one book that was my most influential in my childhood it would be A Wrinkle in Time. I must have read this book over 100 times.

The main reason that I love this book is due to Meg. Meg is ordinary surrounded by extraordinary. She has two brothers that excel at the social world and a younger brother that is a genius. Meg does not completely fit into either world. She doesn't even get the gift of being average. She stands out and she doesn't know how to stand out.

Meg goes on a fantastic voyage and ultimately finds out that she is, in fact, extraordinary. She is extraordinary because she is exactly who she is. She didn't have to grow up or change, she only had to recognize who she is. I think this is why I fell in love with this book in my youth.

Reading it as an adult the book is still magical. It still resonates with me. It is still an amazingly well-written story.

I have loved a lot of books in my time, yet A Wrinkle in Time will always have a special place.

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The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales

by Oliver Sacks

Rating: **** (4 stars)

Book Lenght: 243 pages

Genre: Psychology, Nonfiction, Neuroscience

Sacks is a neuropsychologist who through his career has seen a number of interesting cases. Sacks started in his field when there was so much unknown about the brain. While there is still so much for us to learn, case studies, like those found in this book, have increased our understanding.

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales is a classic of psychology literature. It is a collection of case studies that have inspired research and even featured films. Nearly every introductory psychology textbook will include information on the man who actually did mistake his wife for a hat. Although, I found most of that reading more interesting than the actual story in this book.

The case studies themselves are pretty succinct. They do not give you a whole sense of the person behind them. Each patient could have an entire book written about them. Many times I was left wishing that I knew more about the individuals.

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Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone by J.K. Rowling

Harry Potter and the Sorcerer's Stone

by J.K. Rowling

Rating: ***** (5 stars)

Book Length: 320 pages

Genre: Children's Chapter, Fantasy

I remember the first time that I happened across the Harry Potter series. It was 1999, I was 19 years old and working full time in a bookstore. When the third book was released we had piles of them delivered to the store. In the interest of 'helping my customers' I read everything that was popular, and many more books that were not.

It did not take me long to catch up to the third book. I was hooked and attended the release of every book after. I single handedly sold hundreds of copies of her books. In reality they sold themselves. What parent does not want to hear about a book that is helping children to read.

This first book is one of the shorter books in the series. It introduces us to Harry Potter, Hogwarts, and a mass of characters which you will come to love and hate. The plot is fairly standard fantasy but the world that Rowling created is truly magical. 

If you have only seen the movies then I urge you to pick up this first book. The reading is not difficult and the journey is well worth it. 

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The Reason I Jump: The Inner Voice of a Thirteen-Year-Old Boy with Autism

by Naoki Higashida

Rating: ***1/2 (3 1/2 stars)

Book Length: 135 pages

Genre: Memoir, Autism, Psychology, Non Fiction, Japanesse

Have you ever heard the saying "Meet a child with autism, and you have met ONE child with autism"? This book reminds me of that saying. It is ONE child's answers on autism. It is a rare book, because that one child was a child who was non verbal. Unlike myself, who grew up with Asperger's, who was expected to intuitively know the world around me, yet I did not.

The book is written in question and answer format. In between answers, occasionally, Higashida's short stories are thrown in. The absolutely most annoying aspect of this book to me, is that questions are asked multiple times with only minor variations. Even more annoying is when different answers are given.

If you are a parent who is grasping for any understanding of what your non verbal child must be thinking, then I think that you should read this book. However, I think you should remember that it was written by ONE thirteen year old boy. Everyone's experiences and explanations are going to be different. Also, like a typical thirteen year old it is written like the author is the final authority on everything. For example, Higashida writes about how children with autism are attracted to water because of some sub-primal connection. While being way over dramatic I also completely disagree with his answer. I think children with autism are attracted to water because of the way light shines off it - I know this is why I am attracted to water. I also think that swimming can be a great sensory experience, water pressing on all aspects of the individuals body. This, to me, is a much simpler and more realistic explanation for while children with autism are attracted to water.

It is not that I disagree with anything that Higashida says in his novel The Reason I jump, it is more that I think it was a bit too dramatic. It also relates individuals with autism with the divine, and gives individuals with autism too much of an above society label. Based on my experience, both personal and professional, this is not the case. Individuals with autism, are just individuals that do not always fit the mold that society presents. I would think that a book that Higashida wrote now that he is a young adult would be much different then the one that he wrote when he was thirteen. Yet, that is one of the interesting aspects of reading this book. There are not many books on the market written by an adolescent with autism.

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